A PAIR OF LARGE AND RARE HUANGHUALI YOKEBACK ARMCHAIRS (SICHUTOU GUANMAOYI) LATE MING / EARLY QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

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each with a top rail with a wide centered sloping neckrest continuing in a sweep to boldly projecting ends, supported on gently curving stiles continuing to form the back legs, the slightly 'S'-curved splat undecorated, the arms projecting beyond the curved front posts, with curvilinear spandrels, the rectangular frame enclosing a soft-mat seat, above legs joined by beaded, arch-shaped aprons with cusped details ending in wispy leaf fronds, the foot rest supported by a plain apron, the wood a warm honey tone (2)

The pair in overall good condition. Both armchairs with very minor age appropriate wear. One armchair with a split running from the base of one splat and with the apron below the stretcher replaced. The other armchair with a patched repair where the apron joins the leg and a small patched repair on the front edge of the molded seat frames and with one side apron and the apron beneath the stretcher replaced. The chairs of unusually generous proportion and good color.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present chairs are distinguished by their large size, both in height and in the width of the seat which is some six inches wider than usual for a yokeback chair. Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 57, comments that "large yokeback chairs were called meditation chairs (chanyi) in the fifteenth-century carpenter's manual Classic of Lu Ban (Lu Ban Jing) because their size is suitable for meditating in the lotus position." She illustrates, ibid, p. 56, fig. 4.18, a similarly large chair with square section members formerly in the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection and subsequently sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 1996, lot 53. A pair of yokeback chairs of similar large size, but with differently shaped front aprons, was sold in these rooms 23rd March 2011, lot 651.

Examples of these armchairs in this style but with variation in the dimension and decoration on the aprons have been illustrated by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Nicholas Grindley and Anita Christy, Chinese Furniture, One Hundred and One Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, catalogue no. 8; Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Hardwood Furniture in Hawaiian Collections, Honolulu, 1982, fig. 7; Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Dover, 1986, p. 102, pl. 80; Kai-Yin Lo, Classical and Vernacular Furniture in the Living Environment, Chicago, 1988, fig. 9; Curtis Evarts and Whang Shixiang, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, San Francisco, 1995, no. 22; Grace Wu Bruce, Two Decades of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2010, p. 110.